What the Puck: It's status quo for Habs and that's not good enough

If you’re a Habs fan, there’s only one question you should be mulling over: Are your Montreal Canadiens a better team after the madness of draft day/free agency wheeling-and-dealing compared with the squad that started the season last October?

I’d say they’re at best the same and more likely a little weaker. The Kool-Aid-swilling, pro-Marc Bergevin types will, of course, start nattering on about how Montreal won the Atlantic Division and ended the season with an impressive 103 points. That is true. But it is, to borrow a phrase in vogue, fake news.

In the National Hockey League, all that counts is playoff success and in the 2017 post-season, the Habs failed. End of story.

So if Les Boys are only as good as last season, that’s simply not good enough. And if they’re a little worse, that’s really not good enough. To channel Pierre McGuire, a bunch of other teams in the East — notably Tampa Bay, Toronto, Buffalo — are probably going to be stronger and the big boys — Pittsburgh, Washington and Columbus — are probably going to be just as good. So standing still ain’t acceptable.

Let’s look at the additions and subtractions. Enter Jonathan Drouin, which is obviously a big plus and I remain upbeat about the Québécois winger. But in the deal, the Canadiens lost Mikhail Sergachev, who might just morph into this generation’s Andrei Markov or better. He’s a prospect, so we’ll have to wait and see, but advance word is beyond good on this young man.

Drouin basically replaces Alexander Radulov, so it’s not progress. Drouin had 21 goals and 53 points last season, while Radu-love had 18 goals and 54 points.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the toothless wonder that is Radulov also brought a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to the team. Fans adored him and he provided much-needed spark for everyone around him, from Alex Galchenchuk to Max Pacioretty. And he was a playoff hero.

So losing Radulov to Dallas hurts, but paying US$31.25 million for five years for a guy who scores 18 goals and is 31 years old is a questionable move to say the least.

On defence, it’s more backward than forward. Bergevin and his team lost three D-men in a week, with Alexei Emelin picked up in the expansion draft by Las Vegas (and then shipped to Nashville), Nathan Beaulieu given away for almost nothing to Buffalo and Sergachev going to Tampa. If you add to that the fact that Markov hasn’t re-signed, the team has lost four defencemen and, worse, three of them — Beaulieu, Sergachev and Markov — are the type of puck-moving blueliners that every team is hungry for. Bottom line is that Montreal doesn’t have one D-man that could reasonably be called a puck-mover and so you wonder who exactly is going to get that little rubber object out of the Habs’ zone.

It was almost like Bergevin didn’t notice how many defencemen he was losing. If you’re potentially losing Emelin, Sergachev and Markov, why in heaven’s name would you give away Beaulieu? I get that he has a little too much fun outside the rink, but whatever. He’s a young hockey player with a lot of money. Keep him until the dust settles.

The only quality D that came to the Habs was former Capital Karl Alzner, a solid stay-at-home type. So that’s okay, but they need someone with more skill.

Bergevin also signed Galchenyuk to a three-year US$14.7-million contract and I’m happy Chucky’s coming back. But — of course there’s a “but” — pretty well every A-list hockey reporter said Bergevin spent two weeks shopping Galchenyuk and simply couldn’t find any good deals. So that’s not a vote of confidence.

And worse, I heard coach Claude Julien on draft weekend saying, yet again, that Galchenyuk has to improve his defensive game. It’s enough! He’s a goal-scorer and that’s what the Habs hired him to do. He scored 30 goals in this league one season and he’s on a team that simply can’t put pucks in the net.

So let him to what he does best. And he’ll eventually improve in his own zone. You know how he’ll do that? By playing centre. Give him the job. You don’t have No. 1 and No. 2 line centres. So make him the No. 1 centre and pair him with some guys who can handle the defensive responsibilities.

Canadiens’ Carey Price makes a stick save during second period of the second game of round one of National Hockey League playoff series against the New York Rangers in Montreal on Friday, April 14, 2017.John Mahoney /
Montreal Gazette

Last but not least, the biggest move of the week was the signing of Carey Price to an eight-year US$84-million contract extension. Price is one of the greatest goalies in hockey, but he has played ten seasons for the Canadiens and won precisely nothing. As I wrote above, the NHL is all about playoff success and he has never won anything beyond the second round. Please don’t start with the 2014 what-if scenario. They lost that series to the Rangers in ’14. That’s all we know.

We also know Henrik Lundqvist was better than Price in the 2017 rematch.

The reason I’m not thrilled with the Price deal is because with all that money wrapped up in him and Shea Weber for years to come, Montreal simply will not be able to go out and get a No. 1 centre even if one becomes available. You win the Cup with strength down the middle, not between the pipes.

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